Buccaneers All-Pro named one of league's best defensive backs despite injuries

Injuries can bring down even the best players, and one Tampa Bay Buccaneers star is looking to bounce back from a series of them this upcoming season.

Safety Antoine Winfield Jr. suffered an ankle injury in the beginning of the season and then a knee injury later in the season that caused him to play in just nine games in 2024. Those injuries led to some sub-par play by Winfield Jr.'s standards, but he's looking to cast that aside in 2025 and Pro Football Focus is confident he can do just that.

PFF ranked their top 32 safeties in the NFL heading into 2024, and Winfield Jr. was listed at No. 4 despite last year's campaign. Here's what writer Zoltan Buday had to say about Winfield Jr.'s potential bounce-back:

"Despite the Buccaneers winning the NFC South, Tampa Bay’s star safety had a season to forget. Winfield struggled with injuries and played a career-low 601 snaps. He missed 9% of his tackle attempts, which was his worst rate of the past three seasons.

However, Winfield's career body of work keeps him in the top four ahead of 2025. He was the league's highest-graded safety in 2023 (90.7) and hadn't earned a PFF run-defense grade below 85.0 before 2024."

Winfield Jr. was asked about his season and how much it was impacted last year due to injuries after Day 4 of OTAs on Tuesday, and despite those injuries affecting his game, he made sure not to use it as an excuse as he comes back healthier in 2025.

“It’s football. It’s part of the game. Injuries happen, but I’m excited for this year," Winfield Jr. said. "Year 6 already, it’s flying by. I feel like I still just got here. I’m excited for this year.”

Winfield Jr. will be playing alongside Tykee Smith at safety in a scheme that Todd Bowles said will have a "few new wrinkles" in it, and he'll try to hit All-Pro heights once again in 2025 after having a full offseason to recover.